Heroes Can Save You
by fasterassembly
Summary: Junes is gearing up for the Halloween season. Souji and Chie celebrate it together.


Junes is promoting Halloween this year, so of course, half of the town is against it. The other half is made of elementary school kids and their poor parents, so it's come to a stalemate, for now. Junes' parent company is determined to make Halloween "hip and happening" in Japan, which is why Souji's helping Yosuke tape signs on the inside of the frozen food aisle ("Did You Know… Halloween is the time when the barrier between one world and the other lowers. Witches and ghosts like to come out to play! Buy your costumes at Junes today!"). His teeth are chattering. It's near midnight and still September. He's in slacks and a t-shirt and a red apron that isn't anywhere near as warm as it should be.

"They sent us fifty boxes of candy," Yosuke is saying. There's a piece of tape in his hair. "And we're trying to talk Honatsugi-san into making some traditional sweets for the elderly, and if we market it right, we'll be all out. Except we still don't have enough people to buy it." Then he's rattling off statistics—something about how Junes typically gets customers from Inaba to a few towns in an eight-point-seven kilometer radius from the Junes center, and goes through about four and a half boxes of candy per week, which translates to approximately forty-five kilos of candy going into people's stomachs per week, except people also tend to stockpile, and damn it, Ted, stop eating the candy, they need to sell the stuff.

"But I'm beary _hungry_," Teddie says. "You've been working us for the last four hours! That's child abuse!"

"Believe me, I know it is," Yosuke says, and tears the bag of candy out of Teddie's hands. He offers a piece of candy to Souji. He accepts. Tastes like peach. "But promo starts tomorrow, and we need to have everything done _now_." For emphasis, he pops two pieces of candy into his mouth and punctuates his sentence by raising a fist into the air. Then he lowers it and says, "It's going to be a total flop, anyway. Who'd get into this stuff, anyway?"

* * *

Souji's parents accepted a short-term job overseas over the summer break, but short-term rapidly evolved to, "stay with your uncle until December, we'll be back sometime around then." He doesn't mind. The main problem is that he's overbooked and needs to stop letting Chie talk him into doing things like saving cats from trees, especially when the cat doesn't want to be rescued. And especially when he can't quite figure out how to do things like climb out of a tree when he's holding a cat in his arms. A cat that's trying to gnaw its way through his hand.

Chie runs all the way to the school, and comes back with a step ladder.

"Throw the cat down to me, Souji-kun," she urges, and, against his better judgment, he does. The cat lands on her face, and she yelps and topples backwards onto the grass. Souji jumps down, lands on a root, and spends a good half minute trying to massage feeling back into his foot.

"Are you okay?" he asks, and hops over to Chie.

"I'm good," she says. She's spread-eagle on the ground, blinking rapidly at the sky. "I, uh, uh, wasn't expecting that."

He pulls her up to her feet. "Look into my eyes," he commands. She does. She doesn't seem confused or disoriented, and both of her eyes are focusing correctly. Still, she's not entirely steady on her feet, and his house is closer, so he walks her there and has her put an icepack to the back of her head. Then he looks up a test on the Internet and runs it on her, to see if she seems mentally sound or not.

"You worry too much," she says. "I've gotten a lot worse inside the TV."

"We can't rely on that anymore," Souji says. He checks the icepack, checks the skin on the back of her head.

"Hah. You say that now, but I can still throw a hundred-sixty kilometer speed ball."

"Seriously?"

"Yep." She sits up, and then lies back down.

"You should rely on us more," he says. Never mind that she practically forced him to go up the tree.

"I know, I know," Chie says. Then she blinks and sits up all the way. "Wait, what is that?"

She's looking at Nanako's Halloween costume. It's glittery.

"Halloween," Souji says, trying to sound nonchalant. He's pretty sure he sounds a little strained and kind of like he wants to throw himself out of the second story window instead. "It's coming up."

"We already have the culture festival, though…"

"It's an excuse to eat candy."

"Ohh. I like the sound of that." She falls back onto the couch, her head resting on his leg, thinking.

"What?" he says, when she starts making faces.

"No," she says, and grins. "Nothing."

* * *

Super Featherman Dark isn't in stock. It turns out that Super Featherman Dark is the most popular character, outselling Featherman R thirty-six-to-eleven, which isn't reducible to a nice, simple ratio. Suddenly students are tracking him down when he's having lunch, and asking him if he'd mind getting them something for their little brother or little sister. Their little brother or little sister who happen to be their height.

"If you modify the Ultra Black Rider costume with the Triple Strong Shroud, then you'll have it down perfectly," Yosuke says.

"So how do I do that?"

"Beats me," says Yosuke. "Ask Kanji."

* * *

Chie's at the textile's shop, too, counting change and giving it to Kanji's mother.

"My neighbor's kid asked me to get them a costume," she says, embarrassed. "But Junes didn't have any in stock, so—"

"It was Super Featherman Dark, wasn't it?" Souji asks, pulling out the two costumes out of his bag. "Why is he so popular? He's not even a hero."

"He originally started off as an antagonist, but later teamed up when the main villain showed up," Chie says. "He had a great death scene. That must be why."

"Did you watch it?"

"No, but I listen to little kids talking about it all the time." She rubs her nose sheepishly, and says, "I kind of want to watch it, but it's too childish, you know? The entire… saving-people-but-trying-to-have-a-normal-life thing doesn't happen outside of TV." Souji clears his throat. "Well, that was inside the TV, too."

True, that.

"Do you ever miss it?" he asks.

"Yep," she says, with a criminal kind of honesty. "I mean, it's nice that the town's safe, but I kind of miss the rush that saving people gives you. Haha, now I feel dumb. I bet you don't."

"A little."

"Really?"

"It grows on you," he says.

"I… well… huh." She nods. "Yeah, it does."

* * *

For the cultural fest, everyone's either doing a haunted house or a café, which is how most of the years ago, anyway. The only difference is that this year they're having a Super Featherman R café, which promises to be as much as a disaster as the group date Yosuke cooked up in his second year. This year, they'll have lots of little kids running around and Souji wonders how he's ever going to explain why he's been assigned as Super Feathergirl Pink to Nanako and Dojima. Maybe it's best that he doesn't even try.

Chie invites him over to her house so they can watch the show and get the mannerisms down. Souji's glad that they never invite Yukiko for these sessions, because he feels more than a little silly posing in Chie's living room. He feels even sillier when Chie fits him into the Feathergirl costume.

She, of course, is Super Ultra Featherman Red. It suits her, even if he's a little thrown off by the sheer amount of red she's wearing. It's not a color he's ever associated her with, but it's not one that looks bad on her, either.

"For justice!" she exults. "If you stand against us, then we will punish you! Blindingly Fast Hyper-Kinetic Featherman Red Kick! Hwaaaaa-taaaa!"

Souji claps politely, and tries hard not to laugh.

"Don't just stand there," Chie says. "Get into stance!"

"Do I have to?"

"Souji-kun!"

"For… for love and kindness," he says, spinning around in a circle. "I, Super Feathergirl Pink, am here to reform the meanness and unkindness in this world with my Amazingly Useful Rod Smash!" Then he loses his balance and trips into Chie, head-first.

* * *

The Super Featherman R café was a smash hit with the little kids, and a complete failure for anyone over the age of ten. Yosuke's pimping Halloween to the point where Souji is sure when Halloween actually came around, no one would be able to eat another piece of candy. They have the day after the two beauty pageants off ("Super Feathergirl Pink, tell us… what is really under that skirt?" "Do you really want to find out?"), so Souji's spending Halloween on his couch and waiting for the little kids to come out of the woodwork.

When the afternoon rolls around, his doorbell rings for the first time. He marches over to the door and idly wonders how many Super Featherman Dark there will be.

"Surprise!" Chie says. She's wearing a Batman costume, cowl and all. "I brought you a gift," she supplies helpfully, and holds a costume out to him. It's Superman.

"I," Souji says, then sticks his head around the corner. "Is anyone else here?"

"Nope."

"Rise-chan with a camera?"

"Trick-or-treating with Kanji-kun and Naoto-kun. Yukiko's at the Inn for business. Yosuke and Teddie are handing out candy at Junes." She shrugs. "I figured that, you know, the two of us need to stay strong."

"And get free candy."

"That too. I'm hoping someone has steak."

He doubts it, but doesn't say so. Instead he goes to change into costume and leaves a note for Nanako: "gone trick-or-treating. Make sure Kuwabara-kun doesn't do anything inappropriate. Don't stay out too late. With love, Souji." Then he accepts the bag Chie gives him, and hits the streets.

* * *

They end up saving a bunch of kids from having their candy stolen. It's completely by accident: Souji rushes into a back alleyway, pretending he's flying, and stumbles upon the old extortion gang harassing some elementary schoolers. Souji can't help but feel like he's a little strange, apprehending would-be criminals dressed as a western superhero, but Chie's really into it and no one is hurt too badly, so he can't complain too much. Chie saves another cat from a tree, and the two of them collect thirty pieces of candy each. Everyone recognizes them. Yukiko pokes Souji's styrofoam-enhanced pecs and laughs herself sick.

Nanako is still out trick-or-treating, and Dojima is still at the office when they return to Souji's house.

"Now, Alfred, if you will," she says, dramatically falling back onto his couch.

"What?"

"You know, Alfred, butler to Bruce Wayne A.K.A. Batman? Super amazing butler guy?"

"Ah," he says. He wonders if Superman has an Alfred. Probably not. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Eat candy?"

"Okay." Souji tugs off the top of his costume. "Thanks for today," he says. "It was a lot of fun."

"Thanks for putting up with me," Chie says. "I kind of wish we started doing this earlier, you know? But not too often."

"The costumed superhero thing isn't for you?"

"Well… protecting Inaba and having to run around like this are pretty different things."

Souji smiles into his hand.

"Besides," Chie says, "we saved Inaba without having to get into costumes, and I'm always going to be Yukiko's prince, so…"

"I think you'd make a good Batman."

"I think you make a good Superman," she says seriously. "It's like you can do everything and save everyone and still have time to cook lunch for us. How do you not let it get to your head?"

Souji thinks. Then he says, "Because I was always worried someone would die."

"Yeah, there was that, too. I wish… I wish I could be more like you." She's struggling with the cowl. He eases her head out of it, and slides it down. His hands linger on her face. He's cupping it, he realizes, and immediately feels a little stupider and less coherent. He tugs one of his hands away from her face, and it instead ends up resting on her hip. His IQ drops by another twenty points.

"I wouldn't mind being more like you," he says quietly.

"What?" she asks. Her face is warm in his hands. "Sorry, I didn't hear you."

He doesn't tell her that he wishes that he could be so passionate about something, to have something he would protect with his life. He doesn't tell her that he's always wanted her strength, her dogged persistence, her perseverance. Mostly because those are a lot of words, and he's close enough to kiss her.

So he does, and when she kisses back, the doorbell rings.

"Ignore it," he says, a little breathlessly, so they do. And then the door opens anyway.

"Batman's kissing Superman!" a little kid cries out.

Souji gets up (he's still shirtless. Hopefully no one's noticed.), hands the little kid an entire bag of candy, and locks the door.

"Batman tops, apparently," Souji says, trying to decide whether or not he's surprised. He decides that he isn't. It's Chie, after all, who blushes when people touch her face and kicks people when they start acting stupider than they have any right to act.

"Great," Chie says cheerfully. And then, "Um… how?"

"Is that kryptonite in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

"Very happy," she assures him, and pins him against the wall.

* * *

Author's Note: Written for my own prompt, for once: Souji/Chie, hero complex.

Something fun and festive for the season.


End file.
